Uranus was not in a good mood.
After all, her afternoon with Michiru/Neptune was interrupted by a giant fire … something, so strong that their attacks were causing it no visible damage. Said monster had then been defeated when some normal-looking guy managed to somehow create a tornado that sucked off the fire, reducing it to a smoldering frame of metal.
But no, that wasn’t the end of it. The creature had come back to life, now made of pure coldness. They had been ordered around by some pickpocket that knew the odd male, and now they were following her orders to somehow ‘drown’ the thing.
Although, she would admit later to getting some sort of pleasure from smashing fire hydrants around it.
Damn parking tickets…
There was a bright side, however. It appeared that the boy believed he could somehow direct the surging waters of a destroyed hydrant by his bare hands.
Smirking, she ran over, pausing only to grab a manhole cover. Running up to him, using the manhole cover and her Senshi-enhanced strength, she forced her way into the torrent of water. If nothing else, she would at least admit the guy had some skill if the torrent hadn’t already launched him backwards. Even she was finding it somewhat difficult to keep her footing against the water pressure.
“Need a hand?” she yelled out, forcing the manhole cover at an angle to the spraying water, forcing it to curve towards the fleeing monster.
“Whatever!” came the high-pitched yell near her, but she didn’t spare it any glance, more worried about the thing before her that was slowing down.
She just hoped they finished it off before the automated shutoff valves kicked in and cut the water flow.
From their perch on the rooftop, the other Senshi could only stare—except for Mercury, who was busy handling the data from the Mercury Computer, trying to ensure that the monster was trapped, if not killed.
“Does he have red hair now?” Mars asked.
Moon just nodded.
“And is it just me, or does it look like his chest it now sporting two…”
“Yep,” Jupiter muttered. Damn it! Why were all the good ones either enemies or…
Blinking, she turned towards the other stranger involved in this mess. “So?”
“Hmm?” Nabiki asked, snapping several pictures of what she hoped was the painful demise of the ice thing.
“You wanna start talking now?” Jupiter asked, hand on her hip, electricity crackling between the outstretched fingers of her other hand.
Showing no fear—and once again wondering if perhaps fanfiction had gotten certain anger-issues of certain Senshi as correct as their aim—Nabiki considered her options.
Ranma was on the ground.
Pluto was across the way, watching the creature in case she and Saturn needed to try an attack on it.
And Mercury was more focused on the fight and her computer than them.
So, it was just her, Mars, Moon, Kamen, and Jupiter in this conversation. The other Outers and Venus were still at street-level.
Smiling, Nabiki simply waved a hand towards Sailor Moon. “Well, you can blame her mother.”
“WHAT!?” cried the quartet.
Nabiki nodded. “Well, since you guys seem to have more holes in your memories than the tax code, I’ll fill you in.”
Stepping back, Nabiki focused on Sailor Moon—she did know from her dealing at Furinkan to always go for the dumb one first, especially if they were the leader. “You see, not only was the Ball supposed to be the announcement of the Princess’s engagement, but that night, Queen Serenity was also to announce two new Senshi being created!”
“And these were?” asked Mars, wondering what sort of bull this girl was shoveling.
“Why, Sailor Earth and…” she paused, trying to recall one of those minor dwarf planets that scientists were always going on about.
Sadly, the only one she could remember was Pluto, and that was taken. She did make a mental note to see if that was true here, and ask Pluto how she felt about it.
Luckily, she did recall her Sailor Moon databooks, so she knew at least one Senshi in the series was for a star.
“The Knight of Sol,” she added with a flourish. Nabiki felt it was fitting, as some people had claimed that the sun was just about the closest thing to the size of Ranma’s ego.
The others just stared at her.
“Um … I thought Endymion was the Senshi of Earth,” Sailor Moon queried.
Nabiki shrugged. She had to hope fanfiction didn’t fail her now! “Senshi lines are matriarch-based.”
“Um…”
“She means they pass from mother to daughter, Dumpling Head.”
“WAAAAH! MARS IS SO MEAN!”
“Why do you think you’ve only had the future Sailor Moon come back and not the future Sailor Earth?” Nabiki asked.
Logic: enemy to most comic series.
“And the gender-thing?” asked Mars, making a mental note to ask Chibi-Usa, the next time she came back, about how come she had yet to see a chibi-Mars?
Nabiki shrugged. “That’s what happens when the Queen is interrupted in the middle of creating a Senshi.
“Let me tell you, it was a real pain when that kicked in during our new lives,” Nabiki offered sadly, biting her lip to keep from laughing out loud.
The reason why, was the tears in Sailor Moon’s eyes, her hands clasped together, hanging on every word the Tendo girl spoke.
“And why were you chosen?” Mars asked.
Nabiki smiled. “Well, with Endymion here marrying Princess Serenity, Earth was entering into your group. I particularly don’t know why I was chosen; I was just a minor noble at the time.”
“And … them?” Mars asked, waving over the side.
“Not sure,” Nabiki replied. After all, if she didn’t provide a full reason, they might fill in the blanks themselves—a trick she was quite adept at in Nerima. “He was a great warrior, but I’m afraid the only people who truly knew why we were chosen are no longer with us.”
“Um, guys,” Sailor Mercury called out, eyes wide, and interrupting any further questioning. “We have a problem!”
As the district’s automated emergency systems kicked in—they were well used in Minato Ward—water pressure was cut, as pipes were automatically closed. With a clear signal to emergency centers, stating there was no issues needing the water at the moment—fire or whatnot, they activated to keep the area from flooding.
Taking in several deep breaths that were now free of liters of water trying to force its way down her throat, Uranus took the moment to turn towards the boy, her competitive nature wanting to get some ribbing in at how stupid his initial plan had been.
Really, who directs a torrent of water with just their hands … outside of a comic?
Of course, that plan went immediately out the window, as she noticed that beside her was not some jock, but a petite redhead … who was topless.
“Damn it,” said redhead muttered, as she wrung out her soaked shirt. “Not like I got a change of clothes with me or anything.”
Finding her mouth suddenly very dry, it took everything she had to focus on the voice of Neptune in her head, a voice telling her to remember that she was already in a committed relationship, and a few of Neptune’s promises of what would happen if Uranus actually cheated on her.
That voice got louder as the redhead rang out her pants as well.
Ranma just grumbled as she slipped her pants back on; stupid curse, causing her problems again. With a quick flash of her aura—not noticing that it made the close Senshi hitch her breath—she flash-dried her clothes. She was just glad she had finally figured out that technique, as it made it easier to change back if her clothes weren’t still soaked in cold water.
And ringing them out made it way easier to dry them.
“Now where is it?” she muttered, looking around, and hoping what she was searching for hadn’t been destroyed in the battle for two reasons.
Sniffing the air, she separated the scents, just like she had learned on the road, when she had to hunt for dinner—not like her Old Man could be bothered to take that chore. She could smell the water in the air, a mixture of rain on hot pavement and air free of pollution. She could even smell the first burnt pigeon, but wasn’t feeling like eating poultry.
Finally, the scent she was looking for hit her nose. Dashing down the road a bit, she grabbed a slab of concrete that was leaning against a building. With a strained shove—man, she wished she was a guy at the moment—she shoved it away … revealing a slightly damaged ramen cart.
One wheel was broken, a support block was shattered, and the roof was warped where the concrete debris had pinned it against the wall.
However, it had the two things she wanted at the moment: hot water and unguarded food. Looking around and pulling it out as best she could, making certain it wasn’t about to break, she quickly found a disposable bowl the vendor used, filled it up with the noodles and assorted toppings, before sticking her hand into the cart’s cooking water.
Returning to male—and breaking the stupor Uranus had been under when her chest flattened out—Ranma smirked as he looked at his hands, once again smirking at how useful that Phoenix Pill had been. No burns or anything, his hand was barely a changed shade of red.
“HEY!”
“Hmmph?” Ranma asked, slurping up a meal. Not like he had to pay for it, or that it would be sold, as after all the damage and the battle, it was likely the whole lot would have to be disposed of.
“What was that?” Uranus demanded, stomping over to him.
Slurping up the noodles hanging from his mouth, Ranma swallowed before replying. “What was what?”
“You were a girl!”
“… And?” he asked, not seeing the issue. Maybe’s she’s upset I saw her in her wet school uniform? Ranma pondered, continuing to demolish his bowl, already eyeing what he could have for seconds.
“I believe what my compatriot is getting at,” Neptune spoke, as she and Venus neared the group, “is she asking how you changed genders.”
“Ah!” Ranma nodded, finally getting it, and glad he didn’t have another short-haired tomboy angry at him. “Jusenkyo curse, tragic Spring of Drowned Girl. All who fall in it are cursed to change into a girl when hit with cold water.” Maybe Hiroshi was right; he should get cards to just hand people about it. It’d save him time.
“You expect us to believe that?”
“Uranus.”
“Huh?”
“You do realize that our very powers are proof of magic,” Neptune offered. “Not to mention the Sailor Starlights and their gender changes.”
“… Oh,” Uranus responded.
“I have perhaps the most important question of our time!” Venus cheered.
“Mmph?” Ranma asked, slurping his second bowl.
“Are you single?” Venus asked, invading his personal space.
Pausing, eyes wide and blinking, Ranma slowly slurped up the rest of his noodles, taking stock of his situation.
Currently, he was surrounded by three somewhat powerful schoolgirls in wet uniforms, one of them looked like a short-haired angry tomboy—if her glares at him were any indication, the blond with the long hair tied in a red ribbon was giving him the same vibe Shampoo did at times.
In fact, he had to fight the sudden urge to check the ramen he had just consumed for anything ‘extra’.
Eyes slowly began to close to their normal size when he felt it.
Strong Killing Intent … aimed at him!
Tossing the bowl into the air, his arms darted outward, grabbing the three girls around their waists, pulling them so rapidly to the ground, the damaged concrete gave way, allowing them some extra room.
It was needed, as a large ice projectile, the width of a human body, slammed where they had once been, passing over them. Neptune, who had been in the middle, shivered as the displaced air froze moisture to her back, covering them all with a slight sheen of ice.
Before the girls could complain—except for Venus, who was just wondering if this was some sort of courting—the sound of the projectile striking a bus stop and the abandoned bus behind it drew their attention. Most of the projectile still stuck out from the vehicle, but everything it had struck was incased within ice.
“I … think it might still be alive,” Ranma replied, as he released the girls, before flipping to his feet. The girls followed suit, as they turned towards the frosted ice that should have contained the beast.
What they saw shocked them, as the bulge of frozen ice that the crystal had sunk into, now sported an arm, pointed at them. As they stared, the arm extended, soon gaining a shoulder and the top half of a body, yellow lights glowing where eyes would have been. Almost as if pulling itself from the ground, the two arms slammed onto the frozen pile, pushing themselves upward, freeing the rest of the frozen monster’s body. Its outer shell was dark blue, with large spikes of frozen water covering it’s body. Deep within its chest, now sat the jewel.
“… Huh,” Ranma replied. “Didn’t see that coming.”
Raising its arms into the air—and despite that it didn’t have a mouth—the ice elemental released a loud roar. Several windows not yet destroyed by the battle shattered under the sonic scream.
“SILENCE GLAIVE SURPRISE!”
For a moment, silence hung in the air, before a dark purple pulse struck the elemental, creating a blinding blast.
“Did we get it?” Sailor Moon asked, as both groups from the rooftops landed with the other Senshi, Tuxedo Kamen carrying Nabiki—as Mars insisted she not be left alone.
“Nope,” Ranma replied, eyes focused on the dusty aftermath.
Mercury shook her head, staring at her computer.
“But how!?” yelled Sailor Jupiter.
“I’m working on it!” Mercury replied, as if knowing everyone was staring at her, wanting the answers. But the Mercury Computer was putting out conflicting readings. While Saturn’s attack had struck, it was almost as if the creature’s outer layer had only partially reacted to it. “The outer layer is still hovering about Absolute Zero. I still can’t find out how it directed the energy away from the attack without the surrounding matter absorbing that energy to—”
“That’s nice and all,” Nabiki interrupted, “but considering that Mr. Ice is getting back up and his other form was handing you your asses, might now be a good time for you guys to go Super Sailors, with Endymion dropping the tux?”
“And who put you in charge?” Mars demanded, wondering how this supposed Senshi knew so much about them.
Nabiki simply pointed to Sailor Moon.
“Come on!” the reincarnated princess cried. “We beat you two out of three times! Doesn’t that mean we automatically win!?”
“… I’m simply changing to Super Sailor Mars because I believe it is necessary; not because you told me to.”
“Whatever makes you feel important,” Nabiki responded.
Deciding to be proactive—and really, any power-up referred to as a ‘changing’ couldn’t be good for him to view—Ranma grabbed a damaged street light pole, yanking it the rest of the way out of the ground, and rushed towards the elemental. Even he was smart enough to understand that perhaps getting in close and physically hitting it himself would be a bad idea.
Luckily, the local utilities left him a nice long pole to bash the thing with.
As the girls finished transforming—and Nabiki learned that none of the photos she had snapped off with the digital camera during it would likely turn out as it was quicker than anime showed and bright enough to hide the suggested nudity—they prepared to attack … only for the bouncing pigtailed fighter to be in the way.
The first few strikes with the pole had at least moved the creature about. However, as the creature’s outer layer hovered around Absolute Zero—as Mercury had stated only half a minute earlier—the pole soon became cold enough to shatter against the craggy form.
Thrusting its hands out, the small crags on its hands lengthened and fired at him like darts.
Deflecting the first one with what remained of the shattered light pole, Ranma quickly discarded it as the half-buried dart in it blossomed into expanding ice and began hopping about, bouncing around the street and off the sides of the nearby buildings.
Nabiki oddly noted that even doing that, he was somehow causing less damage from the fight than the Senshi. “Okay, strongest attacks on three with the exception of Mercury and Neptune! Saotome! Give us an opening!”
Landing between the group and the monster, Ranma launched himself straight up again, thrusting his hands forward as the monster started to raise its own. “Möko Takabisha Double!” he shouted, unleashing the twin blasts of chi to distract it.
“Now!” Nabiki yelled, as the twin balls struck.
“Tuxedo La Smoking Bomber!” Endymion cried, launching his attack. The Senshi not even a microsecond behind in launching their own attacks.
“Crescent Beam Shower!”
“Moon Gorgeous Meditation!”
“Mars Flame Sniper!”
“Jupiter Oak Evolution!”
“Silence Glaive Surprise!”
“Space Sword Blaster!”
“Chronos Typhoon!”
The gathered magical attacks slammed into the beast at near point-blank range, creating an explosive shockwave that tossed Ranma back behind the group instead of coming down from where he jumped.
“Please tell me that worked!” Super Sailor Moon gasped, having channeled as much power as she could into that attack.
The answer came as quickly as the wind blew, taking away the blown dirt from the attack, revealing the elemental once again, his front layer with several gouges, each which was healing quickly before their eyes.
“Damn it!” Nabiki muttered. “It is healing faster than you can damage it.” Her eyes went even wider in shock, as the creature seemed to turn its head slowly … and stare at her.
It had decided that of the two it was sent to eliminate, perhaps she was the greater threat.
The ground shook as the creature took its first step away from the icy tomb it had once rested in, looking forward to finally going offensive.
She barely had time to squeak before she noticed it rushing forward, almost as fast as Ranma, over the frozen street.
WHAM!
Luckily, Saturn’s Silence Wall was up even faster. But as with her main attack, the creature’s punch was making a visible dent in the wall, showing that even her defensive abilities were also not completely effective against the attack. All could see a strong layer of ice forming around the punch.
Nabiki looked on, starting to feel a bit of worry. She knew that Saturn hadn’t used her strongest attack against the elemental: the Death Reborn Revolution. Unlike what most fanfic authors thought, it didn’t end the world—Saturn merely had to drop her Glaive and desire that for it to happen. But she also knew that said attack wasn’t very friendly to the area around the summoning of it as well.
Not one to give up—especially as the girls cringed behind the odd shield the one small girl had created, Ranma hopped back, before launching himself off the nearby building to land behind the attacking elemental. Reaching into himself in a manner he hadn’t done since Saffron, Ranma’s eyes focused into cat-like, as he reared his arms backward.
“Neko-ken Sai Dai Kyü Kijin Raishü Dan!” he yelled, releasing ten ki-charged vacuum blades at the unprotected back of the elemental. By combining it with the slight power he was able to tap into from the Neko-ken and maintain control, he could fire them from his fingers, instead of his arms.
All ten struck true, staggering the creature enough for it to relent on pressuring the Silence Wall—evidenced by how the ice on the Wall was quickly vaporizing away, as the creature turned to face Ranma.
“Hey, snow cone; pick on someone who can actually fight back!”
“HEY!” came some of the assorted cries from the other girls!
Nabiki, however, was very thankful for the reprieve, and began to look about for a quick escape. Yes, as a Tendo, she knew that like her father, the best chance for victory might lay in the fact that she was not there in any form to hamper their efforts.
Sadly for her, the Senshi had gathered around her to better ‘protect’ her, meaning that her chances of slipping away and running to find a taxi were very small.
“What do we do now?” asked Moon, as the group watched the creature focus once more on the bouncing boy. “We can’t even hurt it!”
Not surprising, she turned towards Nabiki, as if expecting her to have an answer.
But she didn’t. Right now, she was experiencing what she had never felt in Nerima, what she hadn’t even felt when the wizard had nearly killed her in the subspace pocket realm.
Nabiki Tendo … was afraid.
Ranma winced as a cold breeze blew by his cheek, his mind feeling the slight blood loss, telling him that the last ice-attack had at least cut his skin. The ice barrages were coming faster, somehow the attacks growing once they left the elemental, causing more damage as they missed the pigtailed wonder and struck the nearby buildings.
Landing and sliding slightly against the frozen ground, he began to consider his options. Too cold to hit it directly, too tough to hit from afar. He couldn’t figure out a way to use the Hiryü Shöten Ha or any variant against it.
Right now, he was wishing he had kept the mystical weapons of the Phoenix Tribe, both the Gekkaja and the Kinjakan. If nothing else, the Kinjakan would have been a nice weapon against something this cold, and the Gekkaja would have allowed him to get closer to it without becoming a frozen treat himself.
But not an option at the moment. “Möko Takabisha!” he yelled out, blasting an approaching ice spear before it could get to him. But to his surprise, the impact caused the ice to blossom, tentacle-like ice reaching and curving to strike him before their movements slowed. “That’s new!”
“Anything?” Pluto asked Mercury.
“It … it’s too complex,” Mercury stated with awe. The simple raw amount of magic data passing along her visor’s screen was beyond anything she had ever considered. Even the Mercury Computer was stymied at several turns, listing several bits of data as Unknown. “I wouldn’t even know where to begin! Even the Mercury Computer doesn’t know where to begin!”
“Why is it focusing on him, though,” Neptune asked. Since she hadn’t fired an attack, nor was she focused on trying to understand their attacker, she was one of the Senshi who was not beginning to suffer from exhaustion. As such, she could focus more on the battle. Doing that, she noticed that since the beginning, the creature had rarely focused on the Senshi. Except for one moment where it had focused its attention on the short-haired brunette, it had almost exclusively focused its attacks onto the pigtailed boy.
Following that line of thought, she also noticed that the attacks on the Senshi had been on those standing either near one of those two, or by being in the area where those two had been.
“It’s you.”
Blinking, Nabiki slowly turned to the Senshi of Deep Waters.
“It is after you two,” she spoke again, clutching her talisman in her hands. “Why?” she demanded.
Preservation kicked in, not from the monster, but from her supposed allies. “How should I know?” Nabiki demanded, even if she did. “Maybe there was some prophecy that we’d be the ones to defeat this thing’s owner!
“All I know is that it wants us dead!” Kami, she hoped they had no lie-detector that was accurate. She’d rather not have such hint that perhaps, she knew why said wizard was after them.
Luckily, a new distraction came to save her from that.
“SEMPAI!”
As Nabiki turned, her mind could only coldly notice two things.
First, it had not been Jupiter calling out that, but a worried Sailor Saturn.
Second, Ranma had not avoided a final attack, and flew near them, nearly being buried in ice, as one of the attacked clipped him enough to freeze the majority of his chest, and nearly pin him to a wall.
What more, the only thing that quickly followed … was wondering if this would somehow affect her chances of survival and her bottom line.
Seeing one of its targets incapacitated, the elemental moved to finish it off, eliminating one enemy, completing half its mission, and then moving onto the second target.
“Garnet Orb.”
Said with the same volume as she used with her offensive attack, Sailor Pluto used her own talisman to generate a barrier between the monster’s next attack and the civilian who was actually helping more than some of the Senshi.
You didn’t need to see the future to see how that could be useful.
“Saturn, now!” Pluto yelled out, focusing power into her staff and the Garnet Orb on top to keep up the shield.
Running quickly, Saturn slid onto the ice to stop near the fallen male. Focusing her powers into healing, she laid them on his frozen chest, glad to see the ice vaporizing quickly, hoping she could do more.
She wanted to cry, seeing his eyes look at her. Not in fear, but in confusion, even as she began to try and heal the damage to his frozen organs. His chest wasn’t even rising or falling to show breathing. It was perfectly still, and she wondered how long before that light in his eyes would fade.
It wasn’t in fear, he was looking at her … like she was anyone else.
And she didn’t know if she could heal his frozen insides enough to save him.
Super Sailor Moon looked at what was happening.
All of their attacks combined, wasn’t defeating the enemy.
The enemy wasn’t some misguided soul, some being of pure evil, some threat to all life. Hell, she didn’t even if it was truly alive; it certainly wasn’t human. It couldn’t be healed, couldn’t be changed.
It certainly couldn’t be stopped by them.
It was focused on the other two.
And Nabiki had stated that her past mother wanted them to be Senshi.
Trusting her heart, Super Sailor Moon touched her broach … and exploded in light.
The other Senshi could only stare as their leader became consumed in light, before it dimmed enough to reveal the form of the reborn Princess Serenity, holding the Ginzuishou.
“Let the will of the past be done,” she stated, causing the Senshi Nabiki had not told her story to, to be confused. “Let the planned Senshi be created.
“Let the warriors of Earth and Sol … BE COMPLETED!” she bellowed, as the crystal glowed.
Nabiki simply stared in shock as the wave of power hit her.
Would she have varying command phrases to change?
Would she be expected to pull a Nermia and help save people?
Could she turn that into some cash?
But most of all, as the wave hit her, she wondered if she—like the other Senshi—would have to die multiple times before their future was secure.?
As the wave neared them, Pluto wondered what the reborn Princess was thinking. Completed? As far as she knew, the former Queen had never planned for such Senshi.
What Senshi!? Hell, the only two new people near us are…
Her eyes wide, even as the energy pulse disrupted the elemental’s attack, she turned, quickly grabbing Saturn, and leaping away, just as the pulse hit the injured male.
Only two, one significantly injured.
One … who would immediately transform … and become … “Berserker,” she muttered, as it hit.
As the power struck him, Ranma could only feel pain, pain from no air, from being broken in some manner that he didn’t desire beyond all others.
The incoming power reacted to that … and exploded.
Even as Nabiki realized that she was no longer in her old clothes, but a Sailor Fuku based on light brown colors, she stared at the pillar of light that had erupted where Ranma had landed. She was even shocked that despite how bright she thought it was, among the maelstrom, she could spot the shadowed outline of a human figure.
She tried to shut out the near inhuman scream that followed, as well as the gust of wind and power. Not only was it forcing the ice elemental back, not only producing a surge of heat that seemed to vaporize any ice in its path, but it had also decimated the nearby areas around it. From ground to sky, a column of pure light that almost looked like magma reaching the heavens, forcing away the dark clouds the elemental’s arrival had created.
Finally, the tower of flame receded, leaving an ash-covered ground behind as well as a clear sky.
And when it ended, Nabiki/Sailor Earth/Terra/Whatever the Romans called Earth, could only stare at the transformed Saotome.
“Dumpling Head, why does his form look like the Inferno Armor from Ronin Warriors?” Mars asked.
Sailor … Terra—yeah, let’s go with that, better than a name that could be slang-termed into Sailor Mud—could only see the resemblance, the white armor changed to gold, with the exception of an odd jewel where the heart would be.
That was until the eyes and mouth—the only things not covered by the face-plate—opened … and breathed fire, revealing openings of gold.
And finally, it bellowed, a howl like what Nabiki had only heard in nightmares.
Whatever armored warrior of Sol was before her, it wasn’t all there, and … it wanted blood.
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(Posted Wed, 12 Oct 2011 04:18)
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